On Aug. 3, Bowen, the state’s top election official, rendered an edict that scaled back the use of most electronic voting machines in the state, citing security concerns and vulnerability to hackers. Her ruling came eight weeks after computer scientists from the University of California conducted an eight-week “top-to-bottom review” behind closed doors. Forty six of the state’s 58 counties were affected.

“I am pleased to state that our Elections Office and its vendor, Hart InterCivic, will be able to comply with all of the secretary’s mitigations within the designated timeframe,” Slocum wrote in a memo Monday to the county Board of Supervisors. “When implemented, our layered security approach will help ensure that San Mateo County’s voting devices are secure from the kind of tampering that went on in that room in Sacramento where computer scientists had unfettered access to the voting devices.”

It’s unclear exactly why Hart’s system fared better (results of the review were partly kept secret), but Slocum had a hunch of his own.

“It appears as if the reason San Mateo County’s voting devices faired (sic) better than the others is that the eSlate voting system, while not perfect, did not have the security defect that would allow a ‘virus’ to spread through a precinct’s voting devices and potentially alter the vote totals,” Slocum wrote.

Furthermore, Slocum wrote, one of the “security innovations fundamental to the Hart voting system” is that the record of votes cast is kept in three physically separate memory devices, creating triplicate originals that can more easily reveal discrepancies.

One Response to “Elections Office ready to heed Bowen’s call”

Why has the paper not reported the arrest of Jerry Brown’s top cop (former Oakland Lt. Pete Sarna II), after he crashed into a tow truck on the bay bridge Friday night 8/11/07? This arrest is the first of two for Browns cops. Narcotics agent Henry Kim was arrested selling Cialis to undercover officers in Long Beach on Saturday night. But that arrested was at least reported in the news papers. Today’s edition of the http://www.dailybreeze.com (local news section). What is going on at the department of Justice?